Pre-tournament Southern Scuffle seeds were announced Monday, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga – the host of the prestigious collegiate wrestling tournament – got two sophomores in the top eight of their respective weight classes. The Mocs’ Matthew Waddell is No. 4 at 184 pounds, and Tanner Smith is seeded sixth at 149. Presented by Compound Sportswear, the Scuffle runs Wednesday and Thursday at McKenzie Arena, starting at 9 a.m. each day, and every match can be followed live on FloWrestling. The 80 seeded wrestlers are from 28 programs, but Oklahoma State has five No. 1 seeds. The top two for each class are OSU’s Nick Piccininni and Rutgers’ Nic Aguilar at 125, Pittsburgh’s Micky Phillippi and North Dakota State’s Cam Sykora at 133, OSU’s Kaden Gfeller and North Carolina State’s Tariq Wilson at 141, OSU’s Boo Lewallen and Stanford’s Requir Van der Merwe at 149, N.C. State’s Hayden Hidlay and Rider’s Jesse Dellavecchia at 157, Stanford’s Shane Griffith and Navy’s Tanner Skidgel at 165, OSU’s Joe Smith and Rutgers’ Joe Grello at 174, N.C. State’s Trent Hidlay and Binghamton’s Lou Deprez at 184, OSU’s Dakota Geer and Stanford’s Nathan Traxler at 197 and Pitt’s Demetrius Thomas and Iowa State’s Gannon Gremmel at 285. Tickets at GoMocs.com cost $35 (reserved) or $20 (general admission) for one day or $60-$75 for both, with two-day hospitality passes $100.
Basketball
* The Sewanee men’s basketball team dropped to 7-5 for the season with its second loss in two days at the Hampden-Sydney Classic, Monday’s by a 77-64 margin against the hosts. The visiting Tigers jumped ahead 23-9 and maintained a 36-29 lead at halftime but fell behind midway through the second half. Jake Hahn had 23 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and three steals and Ryan Clements scored 16 points for Hampden-Sydney (6-5). Sewanee’s Joey Knox had 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds, and Adrian Thomas had 11 points and eight rebounds.
* Tennessee Wesleyan’s men lost 75-68 Monday night at Fisk in a nonconference in-state battle of Bulldogs. That leaves Wesleyan with a 5-7 record.
* Chattanooga State’s women take a seven-game winning streak into 2020 after a 75-65 home victory Monday over Central Georgia Tech. The Lady Tigers are 10-4.